Racing against time to meet the target of inoculating the 60 crore adult population of the country, the Government is holding back-to-back meetings with the Covid-19 jab manufacturers to know the status and challenges in the production of the shots.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday held discussions with Dr Reddy's Laboratories Chairperson K. Satish Reddy to discuss the Sputnik V vaccine production and its supply while on Friday he will meet Serum Institute of India’s CEO-owner Adar Poonawalla.
"Had a discussion on the production of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine and its supply," the minister said on Twitter. Although details of the meeting are not known, it takes significance in wake of a shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in the country.
In the meantime, Bharat Biotech informed that manufacturing of Covaxin has commenced at Malur (Karnataka) and Ankleshwar (Gujarat) since June.
In a statement, it said that before being released for administering every batch of Covaxin is subjected to over 200 quality control tests and samples are submitted to Government of India's Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL), and only after clearance are the batches released commercially.
On the other hand, another vaccine manufacturer, India's Panacea Biotec Ltd said on Thursday it had agreed to produce up to 25 million doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine using the drug substance made by Russia's Generium. Panacea will then supply the doses to drugmaker Dr. Reddy's Laboratories for distribution in India.